Acceptance Is The First Step
by of self
Summary: Four times Chad Dylan Cooper was caught out by Sonny’s cast mates on his NOT love for her and the one time he DID NOT acknowledge it to himself. Like they say, denial is the first step to acceptance. Chad/Sonny.


_Acceptance Is The First Step._

//

Four times Chad Dylan Cooper was caught out by Sonny's cast mates on his NOT love for her and the one time he DID NOT acknowledge it to himself. Like they say, denial is the first step to acceptance.

//

1.

Sonny is holding what seems like a bazillion fro yo cups in her hands—in reality it's only five but Chad thinks that everything is better with a little bit of exaggeration—and she's walking along all skippy and happy in that supremely unconcerned way of hers, completely ignoring him, which is really the biggest travesty that there is. Everything is fine for the next few seconds – as in he's staring all annoyed that she wont acknowledge him and she's walking like he doesn't exist – until something terrible happens. Then everything goes in agonizing slow motion as Sonny trips, presumably because of the skipping, the yogurt goes flying, and Sonny's voice comes out something like a bass horn, deep and really manly. Except Chad is not worried cause that's how it's in reel life and Chad has seen enough slow motion scenes to know that Sonny's bass horn voice is not really her voice but just the way he's seeing things, which is always in Technicolor and in 90 mm reel.

What he does not expect is to also see himself moving towards Sonny in slow motion, echoing with a bass horn voice that is not is own. He reaches Sonny and catches her in his arms and watches, still in slow motion as the yogurt cups continue flying through the air and land with a resounding a _**splat**_ on the floor, decorating it with a multicolored hue of frozen yogurt and a bit of rainbow sprinkles which is how Tawni likes hers.

Sonny gasps, Chad feels sheepish and very much like an idiot and then things to return to normal and present fast moving time.

"Oh no! The yogurt is _destroyed_!"

**Huh?**

That is Chad metaphorically scratching his head in response's to Sonny's distressed observation. Like no offense, but he just saved her from landing on her admitted lovely behind—not that he looked at it before to judge—and shouldn't her first response be that of breathless gratitude? He isn't even picky and would quite gladly accept something along the lines of '_Hey Chad, thanks for breaking my fall despite the great danger the falling in slow motion yogurt posed to you._'

"Oh well. I guess I just have to get it again." And then she turns around and walks back to the frozen yogurt machine and gets all that she needs and this time she carefully balances it on a tray and does not skip.

On her way out she notices a stunned Chad and then remembers something. "Oh thanks Chad," she mumbles distractedly before realizing that she forgot that Nico like his with nuts.

She once more turns back around, gets the nuts and then leaves, this time Chad appearing to not even register on her peripheral vision.

Poor Chad faced by the stunning incredulity of the situation can't even bring himself to believe it. He just saved Sonny's behind from meeting the hard granite floor despite her not even noticing him in the first place and then when she does notice him, she only does vaguely instead paying more attention to nuts and such other trivial matters.

Screw believing it. He just wants to curl up somewhere before he explodes with the sad, _sad_ realization that he pays more attention to Sonny Munroe than his hair and she pays less attention to him than she does on nuts. He turns around to collapse on a chair and indulge in some vanity to restore his beaten and broken spirits when he notices a pair of bright brown eyes gleaming at him in amused mockery. It's that pint sized villain, Zora. He shrieks and jumps up and turns his chair over in his haste to get away from whatever doom she has planned for him.

"Relax Cooper. I'm not going to burn ya. 'Least not as yet I will." Zora says lazily as she drops from the vents onto a chair.

Chad contemplates running for his life or a display of some false bravado. He settles for false bravado hoping it will bolster his sadly deflated ego.

"You don't scare me, Z-Zora." Damn that stutter.

Zora snorts in amusement but lets it pass by anyway. "You've got it _SO_ bad that it's not even remotely funny but actually pretty pathetic. Wait, I still find it funny." Cackling loudly she leaves the cafeteria.

"I don't have it bad!" Chad calls out after her hastily but she's gone and he's left talking to the air. Of course he doesn't have it bad. He's just a chivalrous and gallant guy with a penchant for damsels in distress. But that train of thought doesn't lend any credence to his claim. Chad sighs heavily. Right now, he just wants to curl with his teddy bear and wish that this moment never existed. Despite the level pathetic he has sunk too, he still can't bring himself to wish that Sonny never existed.

Yeah, he's got it _bad_.

//

2.

//

Sonny is narrating a joke or a anecdote to someone and Chad is nearby very subtly listening in on it because you know, he's subtle like that. The joke goes something like this.

"And then the woman with the snooty accent was like, "Excuse you, you _cow_." Then the woman with the big hair was like, "Excuse _me_, did you just call me a _cow_?" And then the woman with the snooty accent went, "Heck yeah I did, _cow_." And then the woman with the big hair said, "Bitch _please_. I will whoop your ass like a can of tuna," and she did that whole finger wave thing which had a lot of attitude and then the woman with the snooty accent went, "Oh it's own, _whore_ cow," and then the woman with the big hair went, "Oh no you didn't, _skinny bitch_." And then she jumped on the skinny woman with the snooty accent and…"

Chad has no clue about what is happening let alone what the woman are fighting about and he knows that tunas vaguely figure somewhere in the equation but he cant for the life of him figure out what they are doing there.

All he knows is that Sonny is quite expressive and when she gets excited, and ridiculously so at that, she crosses her legs like a pre-schooler who needs to pee bad. She waves her arms all around and she punctuates ever sentence with a throaty giggle and if you ask him, it's kind of sexy and it makes his mind wander to places it shouldn't but does anyway.

Now she's throwing her head back and laughing and from where's he's standing he can see the smooth pale column of her throat and he finally get's all the vampire romances being such bestsellers and maybe if he dyed his hair black or something and became a brooding vampire with an insatiable bloodlust, would Sonny let him sink his vampire fangs into her throat?

Whoa there! How far gone is he that he's willing to die his fabulous soft and shiny blonde hair some other colour?

"Chad, Chad, Chad. _So_ transparent and _so_ naïve. I didn't expect you of all people to fall prey to the 'big Hollywood star in love with small town good girl' cliché. _So_ 2005." Tawni muses wickedly as she throws an arm around him.

"_Please_. I am Chad Dylan Cooper. How can I _ever_ fall prey to a repetitive Hollywood cliché like _that_?" Chad snarks back, thoroughly unnerved by Tawni's stark and somewhat astute observations. He's SO not in love with Sonny Munroe. But he's vaguely interested in her. No wait, all he wants to know is the secret to her bouncy, shiny hair, which is even better than his and _that,_ is saying something.

"I'm not— _snort_—in love with Sonny Munroe."

"_Interesting_. And I was talking about your latest movie." Tawni chimes back, breaking into hysterical laughter. She then pats Chad consolingly on the back an leaves, still amused at Chad's Freudian slip.

Chad has Sonny Munroe on the brain, 24/7, 365 days of the year.

Yep, he's **pretty** _far_ **gone**.

//

3.

//

Chad is beginning to suspect that there's something between Pico and Broody or whatever their real names are. Like he knows that bromances are the in thing right now but those two have been attached at the hip far before Hollywood discovered the power of 'bros over hoes'.

And though Chad likes to pretend that he's _so_ over gossip and juicy details, he can't help but be intrigued by these two. Also, throw in their odd fixation with frozen yogurt and he's pretty sure there is Something Going On between them. Or maybe they just like yogurt and are really good friends but Cha refuses to believe the last one. Like please, this is Hollywood. Everything is _something_.

And by gum, Chad will find out what it is. Not because he's interested in them or anything. Seriously, Chad Dylan Cooper only cares about three things, his hair, himself and Sonny Munroe. He however does have a incurable need to be in the know. Like even if Milo and Noodle are changing the brand of their underwear, he needs to know.

Chad doesn't question why he has this fixation though. He just lets it be because sometimes questioning things only make you realize how wrong everything is in the first place and Chad likes his bubble, thank you very much.

So Chad is sitting in the cafeteria and examining himself in the reflection of his shiny new touch screen phone. This is all just a decoy though. The thing is, ever since Sonny Munroe came to So Random and Chad suspected that there's something more than a bromance brewing between Nico and Moody, the cafeteria has kind of become his second home. It allows him to gaze all day at Sonny Munroe who spends like a lot of time here and it allows him to ponder the mysteries of something more than bromance because those two chumps practically spend their time here since the yogurt machine is here and all that.

So he peeks out of the corner of his eye and notices that while Sonny is not there, her two cast mates are getting their fill of the yogurt machine. Okay, they are alternately filling cups and downing a lot more straight from the machine. First comes plain yogurt with sprinkles which is how Tawni likes hers. Second comes Mint and Banana with nuts which is how Nico likes his. Third comes Strawberry and Vanilla which is how Zora likes hers and last comes Butterscotch which is how Broody likes his.

Wait a minute! They forgot Sonny's! How rude of them. Chad at once jumps up to correct this gross injustice.

"You forgot to take yogurt for Sonny!" he states accusingly, pointing a firm finger at them. Those dastardly villains, how dare they commit a crime as terrible as this?

Nico stares at him with an interested and calculating eye and Grady is just confused. So he walks ahead with the tray and leaves Nico to deal with this nonsense. Cause obviously fro yo trumps Chad Dylan Cooper any day. Like seriously.

"Like dude, we didn't forget."

"So _you_ say. I didn't see you fill up a cup with blueberry." Chad snorts derisively. He knows, _okay_. Blueberry is Sonny's favourite flavor cause while he keeps trying to convert her to loganberry, his favourite; she stubbornly sticks to blueberries because they are blue and all that crap and better than any other flavor. _SNORT_. As if anything could ever be better than loganberry.

"That's because she's trying out plain with sprinkles this time 'cause she convinced Tawni to try out blueberry."

Chad's jaw drops. Just, just when did this colossal change happen? And it's not like he has been slacking off on his surreptiously paying attention to Sonny. No he hasn't.

Nick punches his arm solicitously. "Poor sucker. You've caught the LOVE sickness after all."

"I haven't caught any bug—" Chad begins weakly but then Nico puts up a hand and puts on a sympathetic face that tells him, the sooner he accepts it, the better for him. Chad grimaces as he crews his eyes shut and bags his head against the wall.

Yeah, he's caught the bug and there ain't a cure in the world for it.

//

4.

//

Are the cast members of So Random _everywhere_? They're like some sort of infestation that he can't shake off. Everywhere he goes, there's either Zora grinning wickedly at him or Tawni sending him amused smiles or Nico gazing at him sympathetically and finally Sonny herself, invading his dreams, his thoughts, more like his whole frakking being.

So far the only one who hasn't accosted him is that blonde fat kid named like a girl. Or a braid. He's not really sure. Mandy or Brady is the kid's name but Chad doesn't know and doesn't really care because it's a relief for once NOT to see someone from the Chuckle City. But it turns out the new sub station they've put up in the studios hasn't escaped from the infestation cause when Chad goes there to drown his sorrows over Sonny invading his being in a BLT sandwich with extra mayo and no ketchup, there's Brandy sitting right there, enjoying a sub.

Chad lets out a screech of frustration.

Is there no peace for the wicked? Wait, he's not wicked, at least not in this scenario so, is there no rest for the weary?

He's had it up to _here_ with these Chuckle City freaks plaguing his existence. Like, seeing Sonny invade his being is more than enough and he while he wont say no to some more of her, he really doesn't need or want her cast mates anywhere near him. They have LOSER written all over them. Well not Tawni cause she's like him. And neither Zora because she will have him hung drawn and quartered.

So that leaves Milo and Brady and he doesn't know them so he can't really judge.

Oh lord, they have even taken away his ability to criticize and be judgmental and arrogant and all those trappings of a Big Hollywood Tween Star. There's no hope left for him anymore. He may as well pack up, forgo his hair gel and become a part of Chuckle City. The idea is not without its pros though.

_SONNYSONNYSONNYSONNYSONNY_.

Chad can never get enough her.

And since that is the biggest pro ever, he'll ignore everywhere con like, scary Zora, uncool Milo and Brandy.

Tawni is neither a pro nor a con because while she's like him, she'll also demand a good bit of the spotlight, just like him so yeah, he'll stay at Mackenzie Falls.

"_Dude_. Sup?" Brandy nods amiably through a mouthful of sandwich and Chad returns the greeting with a pained nod. Wait, a minute, where's his 'brotha from another motha'?

And Chad asks him as much.

Brandy flushes a deep red and stuffs some more of the sandwich down his mouth and then proceeds to speak through the mass of bread and whatever in his mouth. Chad can barely look without hurling.

"We had a fight. Sonny is my best friend now."

WHAT. WAIT, HOW? Sonny is HIS.

Unfortunately that isn't in his head like he supposes it is. Instead it comes out in words and loud words at that. Embarrassing or what? Well it can't be _what_ so it certainly _is_ embarrassing.

"I mean, how can Sonny be your best friend? Nemo is your bestfriend." Chad hastily backtracks but Grady looks at him with a suspicious eye. "I mean, I see you around the fro yo machine all the time." Chad finishes lamely.

"Yeah, the fro yo machine." Grady sighs gustily. "And his name is Nico by the way."

Not that it registers in Chad's head so he continues with what he wanted to say in the first place. "Look dude, I am pretty sure that Sonny is a good friend. But you and Nico, you are tighter than a seamen's knot. So what if you fought? Friends fight all the time. The important is that you should sitting and eating with a sandwich with your best friend, not all alone. I mean, Sonny is nice but you know there's no one better than Nemo."

"_Nico_. But you are so right!" Grady jumps up and Chad grins. Mission accomplished. Sonny is free again to be his. Well not like he owns her or something but Chad likes to think that he's the only one who exclusively knows and thinks of Sonny. In a small way that makes her his no?

"Thanks Chad. And you should really go tell Sonny that she's your soul mate just like Nico is mine."

"She's not my soulmate!" Chad shouts but Grady is gone and the people in the sub station are looking at him weirdly so Chad glares at them and sits back down again.

She isn't his soul mate.

He wouldn't mind her being it though.

//

5.

Chad has always been a fast learner. And his encounters with Chuckle City over a protracted and tortuous amount of time have told him something. That things become easier when you stop denying them and fighting them.

So, not he's caught the bug.

He's not got it bad.

He's not pretty far gone.

And she _is_ not his soul-mate.

Happy now?

He marches up to Sonny and tells her all of this.

She blinks at him confusedly. "So, you are saying you _don't_ like me?"

"I am saying that I don't _not_ like you."

"So you _do_ like me."

"I suppose you could see it that way." Chad tilts his head to one side and considers it. Two negatives make a positive but they still allow himself to remain true to himself. God, this shit is complicated.

"Well then, shut up and kiss me you idiot. I've waited long enough through all of your denial and inability to see my plans to get you to notice me." This time it's Sonny looking brightly at him with the biggest smile on her face, her legs crossed like she always does when she is excited and Chad has no issues with this at all.

So he shuts up, accepts things for what they are and does as he's told.

It's all good.

//

He really dosent know what plans Sonny is talking about though. Like seriously, all she did was ingore him. _Him_. Ignored.

_Oh_.

* * *

Um yeah, ending tying together fail. I spent all week on it, and I didn't come up with a better one.

The line about Hollywood discovering bromances, that is sort of a take off from this fic called 'Isnt It Bromantic?' By unoriginal-elizabeth. It's Nico/Grady but hilarious. Read it. And due credit to her for it.

Lastly, SWAC and anything else recognizable don't belong to me. Not even the format of this fic. Sigh.


End file.
